To All members of the UTK Department of Physics
From Soren
Subject Policies on Consenting Romantic or Sexual
Relationships and Sexual Harassment

We have recently had some issues in our department with a consenting
romantic relationship between a teacher (faculty, lecturer, or
teaching assistant) and a student. I will not discuss the specific
case, but it is a good opportunity to stress the importance of
ALL people in our department being familiar with UT's policies on
consenting romantic relationships and on sexual harassment, and
following both the letter and the spirit of the policies.

Before quoting the full UT policy on relationships I can paraphrase
it:

If you as part of your employment at UT has any kind of power
over another person, you should NOT have any kind of romantic
relationship with that person.

The power might consist of you being a supervisor, advisor, or
teacher at any level. It therefore applies to administrators,
supervisors, faculty, lecturers, teaching assistant etc.

Below you will find the official formulation of UT's policy on consenting
romantic or sexual relationships followed by the policy
on sexual harassment. The policy quoted specifically
refers to faculty members, but as explained above it applies to all
people with some kind of power over other people.

==

POLICY ON CONSENTING ROMANTIC OR SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS

UT's educational mission requires an atmosphere of professional
behavior based upon mutual trust and respect between faculty and
students. Relationships between students and their teachers,
advisors, and others holding positions of authority over them
should be conducted in a manner that avoids potential conflicts of
interest or exploitation. Given the inherent differences in power
between faculty and students, all members of the university
community should recognize the possibility of intentional or
unintentional abuse of that power.

Commonly accepted standards of professional behavior and ethics
require that faculty members not hold evaluative power over any
student with whom they have a romantic or sexual relationship.

Faculty members who engage in these relationships leave
themselves vulnerable to charges of sexual harassment or conflict
of interests. Even when both parties initially have consented,
such a relationship renders both the faculty member and the
institution vulnerable to possible later allegations of sexual
harassment in the light of the significant power differential that
exists between faculty and students. Thus, faculty members should
not initiate or accept such a relationship with a student over
whom they have an evaluative role.

Should such a relationship develop between a faculty member and a
student, the faculty member shall remove him/herself from the
evaluation of the student's work.

Faculty members are therefore obliged to be aware of these
problems and of their individual responsibility to protect
themselves, their students, and the institution from harmful
effects of such relationships.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT

The following information on sexual harassment is from the
publication Sexual Harassment: A Guide for Faculty, Staff and
Students distributed by the Office of Affirmative Action.

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville is committed to providing
an environment free from sexual harassment. Sexual harassment by
any member of the University community is a violation of both the
law and University policy and will not be tolerated. Both males
and females can be victims of sexual harassment, and both males
and females can be perpetrators of sexual harassment. Sexual
harassment is an issue which may affect any member of the
University community and will be dealt with promptly by the
University administration.

Definitions of Sexual Harassment

FOR EMPLOYEES, harassment on the basis of sex is a violation of
Section 703 of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidelines define
sexual harassment as follows:

Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other
verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual
harassment when 1. submission to such conduct is made either
explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual's
employment; 2. submission to or rejection of such conduct by an
individual is used as a basis for employment decisions affecting
such individual; or 3. such conduct has the purpose or effect of
substantially interfering with an individual's work performance or
creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.

FOR STUDENTS, harassment on the basis of sex is a violation of
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits sex
discrimination in educational programs and activities.

Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other
verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual
harassment when 1. submission to such conduct is made either
explicitly or implicitly a term of condition of an individual's
status in a course, program, or activity; 2. submission to such
conduct is used as the basis for academic decisions affecting the
individual, including, but not limited to, grades or academic
progress; or 3. when the conduct has the purpose or effect of
interfering with the individual's academic performance, or of
creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive educational
environment.

The basic point to remember is that sexual harassment is
unwanted, unsolicited, or undesired attention of a sexual nature.
Sexual harassment is a breach of the trusting relationship that
normally exists between the employer-employee and/or the
professor-student. Boundaries between the professional role and
the personal relationship blur because the harasser introduces the
personal element into what should be a sex-neutral situation.

Sexual harassment can be exhibited verbally or physically.
Examples of sexual harassment include: unwelcome sexual innuendos,
suggestive or insulting sounds, whistling in a suggestive manner,
or humor and jokes about sex or (wo)men in general, implied or
overt threats, and unwelcome patting, pinching, or touching.